“If a council runs a swimming pool, information about the pool falls clearly under FOI legislation,” Denham said in the speech. “If a council pays a company to run that pool why should the same information not be available?”

The need for transparency, she said, should not just be limited to financial information: a member of a board of directors running a public service, instead of a council member, should still be accountable.

“Health services, justice agencies, educational establishments all provide public services and their legal structure, which is irrelevant to the public, should not exempt them from the need for transparency.”

The solution to this? “We should extend the right to know about public services so that it is independent of the service provider,” according to the Commissioner, this should be the case whether they are “public, private or third sector organisations”.

At the event, Denham said the ICO is producing a report for Parliament that will look at outsourcing and transparency. “I will place the ball – and my evidence – squarely in Parliament’s court,” she said.

The view is one that will provoke strong views with those within government and also third sector organisations. Former Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock, in March, said the issue is “complex” and he could not promise changes would happen.

The minister’s comments came after a major review on FOI said it would be “burdensome and unnecessary” to directly extend FOI to private companies delivering private services.

I am a journalist and author. I am a staff writer at the UK edition of WIRED magazine and in 2015 my book, Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. I created FOI Directory in 2012.